Edition 9—May 2016 In this issue: Pg. 2: Silicon Trade Mission The Toronto-Waterloo Region Corridor is a global centre of talent, growth, Pg. 3: Corridor Comparisons innovation and discovery. Rivaling the best in the world, this 100km stretch is the second largest technology cluster in North America, next only to Silicon Valley in Pg. 4: Competitive Advantages Southern California. The Innovation Corridor is a partnership between the Cities of Toronto, Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo and partner organizations such as Communitech, MaRs and the Waterloo Region Economic Development Corporation (WREDC). The goal of the collaboration is to promote the innovation corridor as an area of great talent and opportunity and raise awareness of the competitive advantage of locating or expanding within the corridor. The initial success of the partnership has generated great interest from other communities/organizations along the corridor. The guiding principle is that we are STRONGER together. For more information contact: Economic Development Division Corporation of the City of Cambridge 50 Dickson Street, PO Box 669 Cambridge ON N1R 5W8 (519) 740-4683 [email protected] The first week of April, City of Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig, City of Kitchener Mayor Dave Jaworsky, City of Waterloo Mayor Berry Vrbanovic along with City of Toronto Mayor John Tory went on a trade mission to Silicon Valley. The purpose was to raise awareness of the Toronto-Waterloo Region Innovation Corridor and draw comparisons to the highly successful tech corridor in California as well as gain insight, knowledge and information while strengthening relationships with our Southern ally. While away, the mayors met with key government officials, business leaders and non-government organizations as well as venture capitalists including: Google Textnow C100 Cisco Los Angeles Economic City of San Francisco Development Corporation City of San Jose The Toronto-Waterloo Region technology corridor competes on the global stage and offers similar advantages of Silicon Valley with added benefits such as: being home to world class educational facilities and business incubation facilities the largest engineering schools in Canada resulting in some the best talent in the world with over 75,000 highly educated engineering students the University of Waterloo innovative Intellectual Property Policy an extensive co-op program network desirable quality of life for workers including our maternity and parental leave policies, health care costs, affordable cost of living and housing and the highly sought after arts, culture and recreational facilities. We need to continue investment in public transit, raise awareness of what is happening in the corridor as well as reach out to venture capitalists looking to invest in Canadian companies. Toronto—Waterloo Innovation Corridor is at the same scale as our other global competitors Moving Forward—Growing the Innovation Corridor With officials working on some of the challenges we are currently facing, we will start to see some major enhancements to this corridor in the not too distant future. An important factor in unlocking the potential of the Toronto-Waterloo corridor is improved transportation and transit options for the thousands of workers who now commute between the two centres. While the movement of goods plays an important role in the region’s overall business health, the movement of people is on the forefront of future planning priorities. Bottom line is improved public transportation will increase productivity. The Competitive Advantages of the Toronto-Waterloo Innovation Corridor From startups to multinationals, the companies in The Corridor are growing fast ! From young workers to bold leaders who have experience scaling companies, each contribute to increasing the talent, awareness and have helped our ecosystem go from startup to a global player. The Corridor is affordable, diverse, vibrant and accepting. Toronto is Canada’s corporate headquarters and the centre of finance, industry led R&D, health and life sciences and venture capital, all alongside a rapidly growing startup ecosystem. Waterloo Region has the second highest density of startups in the world, along with the headquarters of some of Canada’s largest technology companies and development offices for leading global brands. With a diverse labour force drawn from the country’s largest cluster of research universities and technical colleges, including Institutes devoted to quantum computing, theoretical physics and artificial intelligence, we have the talent to fuel innovation and the competitive corporate tax rates, supportive government leadership and global networks to create new industries. The Toronto-Waterloo Region Corridor is a hub for high-growth companies developing breakthrough discoveries. A diverse ecosystem with strengths in everything from financial services to business services, health care, clean tech and advanced manufacturing, The Corridor is focused on real world problems with clear growth potential. With 5,200 startups, and a strong support network of incubators, accelerators and Universities The Corridor has huge investment potential. In fact, according to a 2014 study, Toronto ranked among the top three cities for VC and angel investments. Source: www.thecorridor.ca .